You have to feel just a little sorry for Athlete. Had they first appeared a few years ago, their cockney chirpiness and songs about English life would have put them amongst Britpop's leading lights. Instead, in the shiny pop world of 2003, their Anglo-centric indie music is about as unfashionable as it gets. Looks like they'll just have to settle for being a great band, then - because make no mistake, Vehicles and Animals is one of the best debuts you'll hear all year. Driven by a sense of quirkiness that's the hallmark of all seminal London bands from The Kinks to Blur, their songs are a bizarre mixture of rambling electronica, strange psychedelic effects and exuberant choruses you could imagine being yelled from football terraces. It doesn't hurt, either, that singer Joel Potts often sounds uncannily like Coldplay's Chris Martin. Athlete may well be just too odd to ever become stars - but on the evidence of this fantastic record, they certainly deserve to be.
